Welcome to Twin Speech, Language & Literacy LLC! (Previously known as Twin Sisters Speech and Language Therapy LLC). Our mission is to make original theme based materials that are both useful and fun! We strive to make every single therapy session interactive, enjoyable, and very beneficial! We love being speech therapists and enjoy knowing that our students want to come back each and every week!

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Hi! I'm Kelly from Speech2u. I'm excited to share one of my favorite therapy products with you. Admittedly, I have a lot of favorites. I love games and toys cool and crafty Pinterest projects. I chose the ebook, Speech-Pictures! Analysis & Therapy by Char Boshart, MA CCC-SLP because it is a lifesaver for me when I have a client or student who is just NOT making progress with their articulation.

I've taken several classes from Char Boshart and highly recommend attending one if she comes to your area. She is an excellent presenter and I learned so much about articulation and the motor component for speech. I'm tongue-tied and it was in her class that I first realized most people can use their tongue to clear all the food in their mouth-including the food by their molars. I was really geeking out in her class.

I don't use this book with every client or student-I'm guessing I use it with about 5-10 percent of my caseload. Here's what I think is great about it. The beginning includes about pages of lingual capacity activities. I know that Oral motor therapy is considered controversial-but these are activities on a hierarchy-that are designed to teach the placement. If a child can't elevate his back tongue-he's probably not going to achieve a good /k/ or /r/ sound.

These activities work better one on one-and it is nice to get carryover at home-but I'm usually done with the program in about 2-4 weeks. I had a client years ago who was came to me at a private clinic where I used to work. He was going into second grade and was still fronting his /k/ and /g/s. He'd had other outpatient therapy and he was getting services in the schools. Knowing that he'd had speech therapy for probably 5 years, I knew that his therapist had tried all of the conventional tricks-and it was time to try something different. So we worked on the lingual capacity activities for back tongue movement. It took three weeks with the parents practicing at home-but we were able to get him producing the /k/ sound in all word positions. It doesn't work this great for every student or client-but it works for at least 50% of them which is awesome!

The second half of the book consists of in depth analysis of how we produce each sound as well as teaching tips and hierarchies for each sound. Each sound (r, s, sh, ch, t, d, k, g, f, v, th, l) is broken down by each articulator (ex. how does the jaw, sides of the tongue, mid tongue and tongue tip/lips move to produce each sound.) Common errors or distortions are discussed with potential treatment activities. Specific information on how hard or soft tissue abnormalities can impact speech are included along with possible compensatory treatment techniques.

The ebook costs $20.00 which is money well spent if you have ever had a tricky client or student who just wasn't making progress with their articulation goals.

Disclaimer-I am not affiliated with Char Boshart and did not receive any compensation for this review. I just really liked her book and wanted to share it with others.

Just click on the link to either store today! And have a fun, jumping into a pile of leaves with shouts of glee, biting into a sweet and juicy apple, pumpkin carving, trick-or-treating kind of FALL! :)

Sincerely,

Shanda Gaunt, M.S. CCC-SLP

Manda Riebel, M.A. CCC-SLP

Speech-Language Pathologists

Twin Speech, Language & Literacy LLC

P.S. Please follow our Facebook page by "liking" our page. It would be fantastic if you did because we are often posting therapy tips and doing giveaways there. You could be the next winner!

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Hi everyone,I have a student who is a very fast talker. He is only four and he loves cars, trains and anything boy! He needs cues to slow down his speech because when he talks super fast, he is almost impossible to understand! I tried using a pacing board with him last week, and I have also tried having him point to one syllable at a time on some multi-syllable word picture cards that I have, but those strategies did not seem to have an impact. That is when it hit me! I decided to take out the cars that he loves so much and "park" them after we played with them a little while. We gave them all a designated parking spot after working on his articulation goals together for the /K/ -/C/ sounds with words like: "park" "car"and "truck" and then we turned the parked cars into a visual pacing board.

He was asked to say one word as he tapped each parked car. He repeated phrases about himself that we had developed from an "All About Me" poster that we had put together from one of our Twin Speech units called: "Back To School Speech & Language Unit" (see below for a free copy of that worksheet). He instantly slowed down his speech and repeated every single word in each sentence about himself with a slow and accurate rate. It was wonderful to hear him say so much personal information about himself in such a slow and accurate way! It truly was a functional and productive therapy activity that I think may carry over into his life in a positive way. It is so good for kids to be able to talk about themselves and have others understand what they are saying like their names, family members, grade that they are in etc.. The other nice thing is that I noticed that he continued to talk slow in general conversation when the task was completed. We had so much fun doing this and it was an activity that really seemed to help him. I thought that I would share it to see if is something that you would like to try with your own students too. Best wishes, Manda, SLPTwin Speech, Language & Literacy LLC *Click HERE or on the picture below to be directed to google docs to obtain your own copy of the All About Me page.

Saturday, September 6, 2014

Hello friends. This brand new colorful and fun interactive unit for children with limited verbalizations or apraxia will be 50% off for 24 hours. We provide this savings to everyone for all of our brand new postings.

We welcome you to enjoy the super cute and pre-K friendly Halloween world of friendly ghosts, pumpkins and smiling silly monsters by using this Halloween-themed interactive unit with your students whom need to work on their productions of VC, CV and CVCV words.

We just know that they are going to enjoy the Halloween train making using your CV, VC, and CVCV words presented with a colored picture, the Seek-n-Finds and the road racing games a ton!

You will find a large variety of interactive and age appropriate worksheets, activities and therapy cards for all to enjoy in this 55 page spooktacular packet! Note: This packet has a great mix of both colorful and black and white worksheets in order to save you the cost of printing out in colored ink if you wish!

Please download the preview to read the contents of this unit and to see examples of the pages within the unit. We want to make sure that you know what you are buying before you do. We sincerely hope that this unit exceeds your expectations and we welcome any and all comments and feedback here at TN or TpT or sent via email. We can be reached at: shandagaunt@gmail.com

Thank you so much for stopping by our Twin Speech, Language & Literacy blog today. We wish you all well and appreciate your support very much! Sincerely, Shanda Gaunt, M.S. CCC-SLP Manda Riebel, M.A. CCC-SLP

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Shanda and I are excited to welcome, Lynda from LyndaSLP123 to our blog today to guest post on her favorite therapy items. She is an intelligent and resourceful speech-language pathologist who has been working with a variety of students for 19+ years. Her diverse work environments include: daycares, Head Starts, homes and schools. Currently, she is working in an elementary school and helps a variety of children from Pre-k to 5th grade advance in their speech and language skills. Her students are lucky because she also creates her own extremely useful and creative products for them and for others to use and buy over at her Teachers Pay Teachers store. You can check out all 72 wonderful products of hers by clicking on this link to her LyndaSLP123 Teachers pay Teachers store today! We really appreciate Lynda's informative post today about her cute and creative Monster Boxes and also her clever Coin Toss Game. Both ideas would be super fun to implement into any therapy room and we hope that you can bring them into yours soon! Enjoy the post everyone! Sincerely,Manda & Shanda, SLPsTwin Speech, Language & Literacy LLC

Hi! I’m Lynda from LyndaSLP123. Manda & Shanda have invited me to talk about my favorite things to use in speech & language therapy. My go-to favorite therapy items are often DIY activities that are open-ended, allowing me to use them with any therapy group. Today let me share my two favorite ones: Monster Boxes and Coin Toss.

Monster Boxes are easy to make. First find a box. I used a tissue box for my Monster Box, but I have also made them using cereal boxes and cracker boxes. Use an X-acto knife to cut out the mouth. It’s easier to cut out the mouth if you draw it on the box first. Don’t worry that you don’t cut exactly on the line. Cover the box with duct tape. You can make your monster box all one color or use multiple colors. I use white fun foam to make the teeth, gluing them in with a hot glue gun. The whites of the monster’s eyes are fun foam and you can use wiggly eyes or colored fun foam for the pupils. Check out the photos for ideas. My Monster Box is the green one, pictured alone.

How do I use a Monster Box in therapy? The students earn one “chip” (Bingo chips or poker chips will work) per turn. During the last 2 minutes of the session, the students take turns tossing their chips into the monster’s mouth. I’ve also had artic students feed the monster their artic pictures (because monsters will eat anything). My students find it funny when the monster throws up (I turn the box upside down and shake out all of their pictures). The Monster Box is also a fun tool to use for targeting prepositions. (Put the block IN the monster’s mouth. Put the car BEHIND the monster.)

The Coin Toss game is easier to make than the Monster Box. First, take a trip to the bakery section of your local grocery store. Ask them if they have any empty muffin trays (I think they are actually muffin tray liners) they could give you. Once you have an empty muffin tray, decorate the bottom of each section with small stickers. I used glittery star stickers that I bought at the Dollar Store. You want to vary the number of stickers in each section. I have between 1 to 5 stickers at the bottom of each of my sections.

How do I use the Coin Toss in therapy? The students earn one “coin” per turn. Poker chips work really well for this game. They are the perfect size for each section of the muffin tray and heavy enough to actually toss. During the last 2 minutes of the session, place the Coin Toss on a chair. Each student will stand about 4 steps away from the Coin Toss and toss their coin into the tray. Each student tosses all of their coins, adds up the points, and removes their coins before the next student’s turn. The number of stickers at the bottom of the section where a coin landed equals the number of points the student earned for that section. If two coins land in the same section, then points are doubled for that section. If three coins land in the same section, then points are tripled for that section. If four coins land...you get the picture. You can make up your own rules for the coins that land on the floor. (Sometimes I let them have one re-try for each coin that lands on the floor. Sometimes I don’t.) The student with the most points is the winner. My 4th and 5th grade students, especially the boys, LOVE to play this game. I think the boys enjoy the tossing and the competition.